The Antonov 225 Mriya, or AN225, is the largest plane in the world. The six-engined behemoth was originally built for the purpose of carrying the Soviet space shuttle, the Buran. This week, it spent a couple of days in Minneapolis, and it drew a big crowd of avgeeks Wednesday night as it departed.

Video of the AN225 departure from MSP on 7/2/2014

Fox 9 of Minneapolis reported that the plane was in the Twin Cities to haul some massive air conditioners to the Middle East. Originally slated to depart on Monday evening, a paperwork delay supposedly kept the plane grounded until Wednesday night, just after 9:00PM.

People in the area took to Twitter to share their excitement and photos. Let's take a look at what some of them shared.

You can also visit this link for a large photo gallery of the Mriya, both inside and out.